Playboating Northwest

First Issue

The Things That’ll Get Ya’
By: Hardly J Tweakle

The rivers are up and the choicest waves and holes and drops are being embraced like gifts on Christmas. It’s time to play, and time to pay attention to the things out there that can get ya’.

Call me your Eco-daddy, here to give you the good word about what else is happening out there besides storm surges, floods and the emergence of our favorite playspots. I’m talking about the other stuff: specifically 1) user fees 2) gravel 3) John Deer bulldozers. 4) Burnt timber

Pay attention--I’m serious about all of these.

In this edition: User fees.

Fall and winter are the time when the Feds love to sneak in their favorite anti-environmental riders, wicked land-rape proposals, and stuff that would get hikers, bikers, and yes, even kayakers worked up were it not, well…winter. Now is the time when it’s assumed everyone is asleep and not paying attention. Which we were, and while we were sleeping the Feds extended the Fee Demonstration program for the fourth time in 9 years. Fee-Demo in the NW is responsible for the Northwest Forest Pass, the Deschutes boating fee, the “backpacking” fees charged in addition to entrance fees at National Parks, and a host of other fees on enjoyment that never used to exist.

My take? Fee Demo is a money-grubbing land grab. For a few bucks you get outhouses (good- for the most part), trail maintenance (good- except that the majority of the work is still done by volunteers) and a slew of newly hired and extremely eager, ticket-issuing forest “enforcement officers”. Now you can get a FEDERAL citation for offloading a boat at a put-in, and yes folks, they ARE now sending these things up the legal food chain. For example: Fish Creek on the Clack is 5 bucks a day. Don’t pay it and you risk an appearance in Federal court where you’ll wait in line next to Osama Bin Laden, John Gotti, and a bunch of washed up narco-trafficers. Yeah— THAT Federal courthouse. Which sounds ridiculous, but it’s true.

Fee- Demo DOES affect kayakers, and not in a good way.

Consider the amenities at the official “fee demo” put-in at Fish Creek on the Clackamas. Yeah, a toilet and a boat ramp. And the ramp, while nice for commercial rafting companies, doesn’t do all that much for anyone else. But the real rub is this: toilets, roadside trailheads, trail maintenance, even the occassional boat ramp—we pay taxes for every one of these things anyway, and most kayakers are pretty simple folk with pretty simple needs. Basically, we want roads and a place to put a boat in. Roads are paid for with taxes and any old dirt lot will do for a place to park and put-in. A PBR vendor at the end of a run might be nice, but really, no one is begging for a McDonald’s at the trailhead or for a huge increase in development at our playspots. Which is where all this is headed. More info: Check out www.wildwilderness.org.

Fee Demo still exists as a so-called “demonstration” project because there is enough bitching and griping going on. BUT, Fee Demo hasn’t been killed yet because the Feds are counting on kayakers, hikers and the like to tire and give up. So don’t.

Here’s my advice: DO PAY your Sno-Park pass –that money goes to the highway department and they plow pull-puts and trailheads as an “extra”, so it’s worth it. Pay your National Park Fees because those are decent folks doing a good thing, mainly teaching regular folk about good, clean outdoor living and wildlife. But do your part to put an end to Fee-Demo, it’s a rip off, a waste of money, and worthy of a letter rubbed in wet neoprene smell to your local politic. A note: Congressman Blumeneur is FOR IT, Peter DeFazio is against it.

Pay-To Play User fees—they’ll get you like a low head dam if you don’t watch out. In future additions-- some ramblings about gravel, bulldozers, and flaming timber—with some good news thrown in for taste.

Until then, check out the latest press release from Wild Wilderness.

Originally authorized as a rider attached to the 1996 Interior

Appropriations Bill, fee-demo was to have been a three-year experiment. If

fee-demo proved itself, Congress would almost certainly grant it permanent

authorization. But because fee-demo, especially as practiced by the USFS,

BLM and FWS, has been a flop and has become a political hot-potato…..they do

not have the votes to make it permanent and certainly do not have the

public's support.

So while opponents of fee-demo had hoped that Congress would allow the

program to die peacefully, we are thankful that Congress did not grant the

full two-year extension Mr. Bush had requested. We expect that this latest

15 month extension will be the LAST extension fee-demo will ever get. We

expect that the fate of fee-demo will be resolved in 2004 and are optimistic

that this program will be terminated, at least for the USFS, BLM and FWS.

The USFS has long denied the claims of fee-demo opponents who say fee-demo

was created by the recreation industry explicitly to commercialize and

privatize recreational opportunities upon public lands. USFS spokespersons

have said fee-demo would allow federal agencies to regain control of

campgrounds and other facilities that had previously been given to the

private sector to operate because fee-demo would all the USFS to keep the

fees collected. They said fee-demo would help reverse the growing trend

toward commercialization and privation of the Great Outdoors. They were

wrong.

PS... The most valuable action you could take today to end fee-demo would be

to write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Ask your friends,

neighbors and community to become active participants in the Democratic

progress and have them communicate their concerns directly to their elected

representatives.

Hardly J Tweakle

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